s occasionally either to deviate into truth, or
to have been a realistic novelist born centuries too early. Why then, it
may be asked, do we doubt that Sprot may have forged, without a genuine
model, Letter IV? The answer will appear in due time. Letter IV, as
Sprot confessed, is certainly the model of all the letters which he
forged, whether those produced or those suppressed. He was afraid to
wander from his model, which he repeated in Letters I (?), III, V, and in
the unproduced letters, including one which we have found in twelve torn
fragments, with the signature missing.

XV. THE FINAL CONFESSIONS OF THE NOTARY

On July 16, Sprot was again examined. Spottiswoode, Archbishop of
Glasgow, the historian, was present, on this occasion only, with
Dunfermline, Dunbar, Sir Thomas Hamilton, Hart, and other nobles and
officials. None of them signs the record, which, in this case only, is
merely attested by the signature of Primrose, the Clerk of Council, one
of Lord Rosebery's family. In this session Sprot said nothing about
forging the letters. The Archbishop was not to know.

Asked if he had any more reminiscences, Sprot said that, in November
1602, Fastcastle having been sold, Logan asked Bower 'for God's sake' to
bring him any of the letters about the Gowrie affair which he might have
in keeping. Bower said that he had no dangerous papers except one letter
from Alexander Ruthven, and another from 'Mr. Andro Clerk.' This Clerk
was a Jesuit, who chiefly dealt between Spain and the Scotch Catholics.
He was involved in the affair called 'The Spanish Blanks' (1593), and
visited the rebel Catholic peers of the North, Angus, Errol, and Huntly.
{202} Logan, like Bothwell, was ready to intrigue either with the Kirk or
the Jesuits, and he seems to have had some personal acquaintance with
Father Andrew.

Bower left Logan, to look for these letters at his own house at
Brockholes, and Logan passed a night of sleepless anxiety. One of the
mysteries of the case is that Logan entrusted Bower, who could not read,
with all his papers. If one of them was needed, Bower had to employ a
person who could read to find it: probably he used, as a rule, the help
of his better educated son, Valentine. After Logan's restless night,
Bower returned with the two letters, Ruthven's and Clerk's, which Logan
'burned in the fire.'

(Let it be remembered that Sprot has not yet introduced Letter IV into
his depositions, though tha